Branding in the Energy Technology Revolution

Wednesday night I had the rare honor of hearing New York Times columnist, best-selling author and three-time Pulitzer winner, Thomas L. Friedman speak at the OSU Executive Management Briefing.

I’ve been a fan of Friedman’s work ever since 2006 I when decided to picked up The World is Flat to see what all the fuss was about. It only took reading a couple of pages before I was driven into a full blow Friedman cram session, devouring every bit of the Lexus and the Olive Tree (to catch up) and then picking up where I had left off in the World is Flat.

Friedman’s presentation touched on the highlights of his newest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, which addresses the energy crisis facing the world and the revolution it will take to overcome it.

Friedman took the audience back in time to remember the IT revolution that he spoke of in The World is Flat, but then went on to tell how a new revolution is going to have to happen in order to solve the approaching crisis. He calls this new revolution the ET revolution, which stands for Energy Technology.

He went on to say that, in the same way that companies had to “change or die” in the IT revolution, companies again are going to have to “change or die” in the ET revolution. These changes will take dedicated commitments, inside and out. Friedman explained it this way,

Change or Die. Don’t just add green racing stripes.

This reminded me of how branding is so often misunderstood as being simply the creative and visuals on the outside of a brand. When in reality, it’s the less than glamorous internal focus and strategies that make up strong authentic brands.

Greenwashing is in full swing right now. Everyone’s jumping in the pot to get their cut from green, but before the ET revolution can happen, brands must go beyond plastering their images with green coatings and internalize true commitments to strategizing and executing these changes.

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Good post! I comment because I met with a potential new client yesterday that is a pretty influential player in the power generation and distribution process here in Iowa.

We got into a pretty detailed conversation about green technologies and “renewable” energy sources. A lot of light was shed on the subject – without politics, spin, or agendas – and the truth falls into Friedman’s “Change or Die” statement.

Since you seem to have read his books on globalization, it would be interesting for you to read what Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel winner for economics and was Chief Economist at World Bank) said while on a trip to India – that 600 million people from India (out of the one billion!) have been left out of the “development” fold of globalization. So, obviously, all India is not going to migrate into middle class, if anything the inequality is far, far worse now, after the advent of globalization.

Similarly newspaper reports have pointed out how Chinese workers are working in apalling conditions, to churn out the low cost products, with poor pay, cramped rooms, no accident or health insurance benefits, no job security, no overtime, long working hours etc – so who is actually benefiting from this sort of globalization? Corporates ofcourse, and the few privileged people of India and China who have been able to get educated in engineering and technology! Not the vast majority of population.

There is also a small, but interesting book, by Aronica and Ramdoo, “The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Bestseller,” which offers a counterperspective to Friedman’s theory on globalization. It is a small book compared to the 600 page tome by Friedman, and aimed at the common man and students alike. As popular as the book may be, some reviewers assert that by what it leaves out, Friedman’s book is dangerous. The authors point to the fact that there isn’t a single table or data footnote in Friedman’s entire book.

“Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution,” says Aronica. Aronica and Ramdoo conclude by listing over twenty action items that point the way forward, for understanding the critical issues of globalization.